This Tweet Proves What A Hypocrite Trump Is For Banning Transgender People From The Military

On Wednesday, President Donald Trump revealed in a series of tweets that he planned to ban transgender individuals from serving in the U.S. military. The news comes as rather alarming, as Donald Trump campaigned to "fight" for the LGBTQ community, and this declaration reads much more as an attack than anything else. Social media exploded with responses after the president's tweets were sent out in the morning, many condemning the president for his hypocritical decision. It lead many to resurface an old tweet of Donald Trump's that showed just how hypocritical Trump's call for a trans ban in the U.S. military is.

Judd Legum, of ThinkProgress, tweeted out a quote from Trump's June 14, 2016 tweet, stating that the then presidential candidate would "fight" for the LGBT community, while, according to Trump, "Hillary brings in more people that will threaten your freedoms and beliefs." The pull quote from the tweet is heartbreaking, as it shows that not only did Trump not fight for the LGBTQ community, but he didn't even need to "bring in" people to threaten the freedoms and lives of the transgender community — he did it himself. This was nothing more than a decision the president made (following "consultation with [his] Generals and military experts" he said in the series of tweets). He chose to do exactly what he campaigned he wouldn't do.

It would be naive to think that a president wouldn't campaign on promises that he couldn't keep, many do — it is kind of politicians' thing — but the social issues that Donald Trump promised to fight for have been a point of serious criticism since taking office, due to the fact that he has done little to nothing in fighting for those issues.

While the idea of "fighting" for a marginalized community may seem foreign for President Trump, there was another tweet proving the hypocritical decision came to light, courtesy of Cole Ledford. It said, "Let me get this straight: Donald Trump won't let trans people who want to serve in the military but dodged service 5 times himself? Ok cool."

As the Los Angeles Times wrote in 2016, "... For all of Trump’s boasting about his support from veterans, he has never served in the military, thanks to a string of deferments that enabled him to avoid the draft during the Vietnam War." Looking beyond the argument of why Trump didn't serve in the military, he seems to be missing one large part of the enlistment process (for any person serving in the military). Those serving in the military are willing to fight for our country and risk their lives to provide Americans with the freedom we have come to expect from our country. Cis and transgender people are all providing a very brave service standing for the United States. And for transgender people, they are standing for a country that, sadly, doesn't always stand with them. That is something Trump shouldn't ignore.